Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre (File Photo)

By Sheldon Spackman

Increasing Capacity

Red Deer Regional Hospital preparing for more COVID-19 patients

Nov 19, 2020 | 12:17 PM

Rising numbers of active COVID-19 cases across the province has Red Deer city council wondering what capacity there might be locally to accommodate affected patients from other parts of the province if needed.

Staff with The City of Red Deer recently contacted Alberta Health Services (AHS) for some answers in that respect.

According to AHS, there are 70 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds available for COVID-19 patients across the province, with an additional 173 general adult ICU beds throughout Alberta.

In the Central zone, AHS has ICU beds for those with COVID-19 who require ventilators. The ICU/Coronary Care Unit (CCU) has 18 beds, with the ability to increase to 20 beds if necessary. Officials say the hospital can accommodate up to 20 patients requiring a ventilator.

There is also one inpatient unit (36 beds) at Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre (RDRHC) for COVID positive and/or presumptive patients who require hospital admission, outside the ICU.

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As of Wednesday, there were eight people in hospital with COVID-19 in the Central zone.

As part of AHS’s capacity planning efforts, it’s noted that a number of its rural sites have beds that can be used for COVID patients. Officials say these 62 beds are not “held” empty, but can be put into use for other acute care patients if needed.

“Among our capacity efforts, we have temporarily converted acute care spaces in rural hospitals like Hardisty and Consort into continuing care spaces in order to create single patient populations in rural areas to better protect the most vulnerable,” reads an AHS statement provided to The City of Red Deer.

It is also noted that Red Deer Regional has the only ICU beds in Central zone.

“There are high observation/step down type beds in Wetaskiwin and at St. Mary’s Hospital (Covenant Health facility) in Camrose. However, neither of those sites are equipped to manage ventilated patients other than for stabilization and transport.”

Officials point out AHS has the ability to create ICU space in spaces that would otherwise be used to care for patients who have other conditions.

As part of surge capacity planning, AHS is said to have readied an additional 10 ICU beds late last week in Edmonton Zone, which can be utilized for COVID-19 positive patients as required. Another 10 ICU spaces are also being readied for use later this week in Edmonton Zone.

In the Calgary zone, an additional 20 ICU spaces are being created.

Officials say additional ICU spaces will also be readied for use in the North, South and Central zones, as needed.

Further capacity planning measures by AHS include the postponement of all non-urgent and elective procedures earlier this spring, including at Red Deer Regional.

A slowdown in laboratory testing and diagnostic imaging was also undertaken that saw the postponement of routine and non-urgent tests to enable the redeployment of staff and resources to areas of greatest need.

“We have since returned to pre-COVID numbers of surgeries/procedures and ambulatory care visits, although many of the ambulatory visits now happen through virtual technologies,” says AHS.

AHS is also working closely with primary care, where they have increased their supports to help monitor and care for patients as long as possible at home and in their community, freeing up space in acute care facilities.

The organization says it has had to make significant changes to the way it delivers healthcare during these extraordinary times.

“But, one thing has remained the same – anyone needing urgent, emergency healthcare will receive it.”